Stroudsburg-Pocono Airport sold for $1.4 million

Saturday

Stroudsburg-Pocono Airport has been sold, Robert Strenz, the seller, confirmed. The transaction took place months ago, but both parties have stayed quiet on the purchase details.

“I can’t talk about the sale, that was part of the agreement,” Strenz said. He directed questions to the airport’s new owner, Troy Nauman, who also declined to name the price.

Monroe County tax records show a Sept. 1 purchase date for the airport’s three parcels. The combined sale price for that 106-acre stretch was $1.4 million.

Nauman intends to keep the airfield open for the foreseeable future, he said. The real estate developer is currently renovating some of the property’s other buildings for new tenants.

“I look at it as just another investment in property,” he said. “There’s a lot of commercial buildings on the site. It’s industrial land with sewer hookup — it makes sense for me going forward.”

Nauman, who also owns Nauman Contracting in East Stroudsburg, is responsible for several local construction projects. Those include Garlic Restaurant & Bar and the Kitson Building, home to Starbucks and Marita’s Cantina, on Stroudsburg’s Main Street. Trackside Station Grill & Bar at 50 Crystal Street, East Stroudsburg, was a Nauman job also.

Stroudsburg-Pocono Airport is located near Business Route 209 in Smithfield Township. The property includes the largest part of an area zoned for industrial use — one of only two such areas in the township.

Strenz originally purchased the property in 1984. He believes it is one of the oldest airports in the state, he said. Federal Aviation Administration records show flight activities from 1946 as the earliest documented at the site.

Most buildings on the property are no longer used for aviation, said Nauman. The majority are rented out for other industrial uses.

“You don’t make money in airport operations anymore,” he said. “All those buildings, they’re just commercial rentals. There’s probably only two with an airplane actually inside them.”

“Most are commercial businesses. There’s only one being used for an aviation business, which is for the skydivers.”

Sky’s the Limit skydiving business has been a longtime tenant of the facility. It serves as the closest parachute drop zone to the New York City metropolitan area.

Stroudsburg-Pocono Airport currently operates as a privately owned, public-use facility. It has a single runway that measures 3,087 feet long by 30 feet wide. There are 24 aircraft based on the field, which average 115 operations a week, according to FAA records.

The airport has a local economic impact of $14 million a year, according to a 2010 study commissioned by the state Department of Transportation. The facility employed 85 people at that time.

The study, prepared by engineering firm Wilbur Smith Associates, factors both the “direct impacts related to on-airport businesses” and off-site impacts “usually attributable to visitor spending.” It also considers multiplier impacts, which are attributed to airport employees recirculating their income into the local economy.

Nauman’s initial focus will be on improving the existing structures at the site, he said. Strenz for several years has operated the airport while living in Virginia. Some of the lesser-used buildings have fallen into disrepair.

“It’s basically cosmetic,” Nauman said. “We’re cleaning up debris, landscaping, getting rid of things left by some of the tenants.”

“Down the road, we’ll probably build another building or two. Right now, we’re just strengthening our tenant base.”

Nauman has some previous aviation experience. The real estate developer is also an instrument-rated private pilot.

“I have a plane and I like to fly it, but that’s not why I bought the airport,” he said. “I bought it because it’s a really nice piece of industrial property.”

“It will be an airport for a while. I don’t have to keep it an airport, but at this point I don’t see any reason why we would close it.”

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